Read Danger at Dahlkari for Free Online Page A

plump and pleasant, bragging about his wealth and prestige. Ahmed, young and swaggering and full of life, such a beautiful youth. All the servants and bearers, men who probably had large families. Yesterday so alive, and now.… I took a deep breath and stood up straight and deliberately forced the images out of my mind. I couldn’t allow myself to think about it. I thought about Dollie and Reggie and the warm welcome awaiting us at Dahlkari. They … they wouldn’t miss us because they didn’t know when we were due to arrive. They expected us to arrive with Lieutenant Parks and a full military escort. We could expect no one to come looking for us, not for days and days, no one except the Thugs who might return to finish the job.
    Stop it ! I admonished myself sharply, and this time I was successful. The nightmare was over, over, and the sunlight was radiant this morning, slanting through the dark green treetops in dazzling yellow-gold rays, creating soft blue-gray shadows, and white flowers blossomed on vines like tiny showers spilling down. Bright green parakeets flitted overhead, singing and scolding, while the ever-present monkeys swung from limb to limb, making a friendly, noisy clatter. The jungle was anything but ominous now as I moved purposefully down the path to the tall grayish-tan trees so heavy with fruit that the boughs nearly touched the ground, fruit like Christmas tree ornaments, dark-orange, bright red.
    As we would have to carry the fruit, I unceremoniously lifted my skirt and ripped off one of my petticoats, folding it into a makeshift carry bag which I slowly began to fill. A swarm of white and yellow butterflies suddenly materialized, hovering over me like scraps of fluttering silk, hanging there for a moment, trembling on air, then passing on. Sally was right about the monkeys. One brazen little creature perched on a limb nearby and watched me with head cocked to one side, finally swooping down and snatching a piece of fruit from my hand. I laughed, a lovely, spontaneous laugh, and I knew then that it was going to be all right.
    Sally had already fashioned our parasols when I returned with the heavily laden bag. The leaves were thick and heavy, a very dark green, almost two feet in circumference, and she had fastened the stems of five together for each parasol, attaching the stems to the top of long sticks with strips of white cotton that had previously been ruffles on one of her petticoats. I had often grumbled about the necessity of wearing so many undergarments, anything less than five considered shockingly lax by the ladies at the academy, but they were certainly proving useful now. By the time we finally reached Dahlkari we would probably both be down to our bloomers, I thought, smiling.
    â€œThat bag looks familiar,” Sally said. “Oh dear, one of your very best, too. At least mine are just cotton . Here’s your parasol, Miss Lauren. Quite the thing, isn’t it? It’d set a new style in Bath. Let me take that bag. I see you brought plenty.”
    â€œAt least two dozen. I wasn’t sure we’d be able to find anything else to eat. Are—are we ready?”
    â€œReady as rain,” she said brightly. “We—we’ll have to pass through the campsite and around those boulders. I hope it won’t—”
    â€œIt won’t upset me at all,” I lied.
    Sally jammed the pistol in the waistband of her dress, slung the bag of fruit over one shoulder, propped the parasol over the other and gave a twirl. We left the jungle and passed across the large clearing surrounded by the enormous gray boulders. When we had left it, it had been filled with tents and campfires with bubbling pots and men who talked in quiet, relaxed voices, and then … I thrust the threatening images from my mind, peering up at the sky, a pale, pale blue that looked as hard as baked enamel, hot, like the rays of sunlight that suddenly seemed fierce without the